Third Side Forum

European Imams Focus on Issue of Identity

In Vienna a group of European Imans meet and look at their role in developing and changing the global image of Muslims.

A declaration by the head of Bosnia‘s Islamic community that has been circulating among European mosques illustrates the balancing act for the continent‘s more than 33 million Muslims.
"There‘s kind of psychological warfare now between East and West and Europe is at the center of it," said Mustafa Ceric, the leader of Bosnia‘s Muslim community and author of the "Declaration of European Muslims" issued earlier this year.

Ceric, who cannot attend the Vienna meeting because of a scheduling conflict, plans to have an aide present his document. It urges European Muslims to embrace modern views and change "a bad global image to a good global image of Muslims," but also blames the West for fanning prejudices against Islam following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

"Peace Begins With Me"

In Hopkinton MA the Hopkinton Public Library and the Friends of the Library hosted an innovative children's concert entitled "Peace Begins With Me - We're Bully Free!" by Performing Arts Educator, Cheryl Melody. This concert is designed to give children a sense of hope that transcends the negativity they sometimes face in their day-to-day world.

This musical journey is filled with interactive opportunities, uplifting words and original, catchy music. Every song and rhythmic rap is participatory, and every piece of music focuses on concrete, educational messages that teach children how they can bring peace to their lives and to the lives of others. Through participatory and original songs, instruments, gentle movement, multicultural puppets, international flags and the Vibratory Golden Peace Bowl. Suitable for children Pre-school through Grade 5, the concert is a fun way for children to learn about non-violent conflict resolution and bully-free environments, all while having a great time singing and laughing.

We’re not afraid!

After the London subway attacks a website was developed to show the world that we’re not afraid of what happened in London and that the world is better place without fear. Every day people send into the site pictures often with a phrase about not being afraid. Some images show every day activities and others are filled with humor and pride. The site also has a discussion forum and a space for essays, poetry and thoughts. They are still updating the site with 5 new galleries a week! And have had as many as 18,000 images backlogged. A great opportunity for healing and connection.

We are not afraid to ride public transportation.
We are not afraid to walk down a crowded street.
We are not afraid of each other.
We are not afraid to say that terrorism in any form is never the answer.

Visit their site: http://werenotafraid.com/index.php

Young Muslims Speak

adapted from the Peace Direct website

Peace Direct took a different approach to the London Bombings. They initiated the Young Muslims Speak project which aimed to provide a platform for young Muslims from all backgrounds to share ideas, express their feelings freely, identify their needs and suggest ways that could help them in fulfilling their full potential within British society.

Over two workshops the project was facilitated by international peacebuilders working in conflict areas. Dekha Ibrahim Abdi from Northern Kenya, and Mohammad Shbyta from the West Bank employed peacebuilding and dialogue tools developed at a grassroots level to understand and consider issues and challenges raised by participants. Through dialogue techniques, a strategy for action is now being developed as well as a network capable of representing young people’s concerns.

The participants agreed that unless we understand the implications of being British and Muslim we will not be able to create the conditions in which all young Muslims feel that they have a respected and valued place in UK society. The existence of individuals who feel marginalized and disrespected is one of the classic causes of conflict. The project came to focus on four issues participants felt to be at the root of this concern; perceptions, the media and islamaphobia, the community generation gap and Muslim participation. The young Muslims came together to describe how a multi-layered approach could be brought to tackling these issues. This included plans for furthering dialogue and education at a national level whilst also pointing out ways that specific projects at a very local level could be undertaken and identified the difficulties and opportunities of working with local authorities.

Working alongside participants, Peace Direct has collated the findings from the two workshops together to create a project report. This is now being released to the media, local/national policy-makers and organizations with an interest in Muslim affairs. It is hoped that the paper will lead to a better understanding of young Muslims and the most important issues facing them whilst the creation of a network representing young Muslims will mobilize and equip them in fulfilling their lives in British society.

Spiral Dynamics Integral Founder visits Israel

Earlier this year the Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi) group in Israel invited the CEO and founder of its mother organization in the United States, Dr. Don Beck, to peer into the depths of the Israel/Palestine conflict. He presented in Tel-Aviv and in Bethlehem. He said that this
time around, his first visit to the area, he is mainly listening and learning. In the spring, he plans to return here mainly to speak and teach.

In a preliminary document he wrote prior to his visit, Beck argues that there is a destructive dynamic, expressed in a vicious circle of injury and counter-response, between the two hostile camps here. This dynamic exists on the backdrop of polarization between different sectors in each of the two societies. And if this were not enough, interested parties, both domestic and foreign, are exploiting the situation to their own advantage. The media fan this polarization, along with the feeling of opposition between "us" and "them," even further.

Beck argues that in these circumstances, any attempt at bridging the gap and negotiating, even if it is done by a side not directly involved in the conflict, cannot be sufficiently neutral. He prefers to look at the different value systems prevailing in the region, and seek bases for technological, economic and environmental growth and progress for each of the societies.

To view this report visit: http://www.freshconnections-integral.com/beck_brief2.htm

Providing support to our Providers

Adapted from The State: Hospitals, colleges get creative to cope with nursing shortage
By Linda H. Lamb

In Florence South Carolina at the McLeod Regional Medical Center, every hospital has nurse managers who supervise and mentor nurses and a “nurse liaison” who makes 860 nurses’ problems her business. “If you take care of your nurses, the nurses will take care of your patients,” Marie Segars, top nurse and vice president for patient services.

South Carolina has been facing a nursing shortage and has found creative ways to cope with the issue. “It has to be more than salary,” said Peggy Deane, senior vice president for patient care services at Anderson Area Medical Center. “It has to be the culture and the environment.”

At McLeod Regional Medical Center Renee Kennedy makes 860 nurses’ problems her business. A new nurse has trouble adjusting? An experienced nurse has a conflict with her supervisor? Kennedy is there, trying to mediate little problems before they become big ones.

Tony Derrick, a nursing director in the emergency department, said having a nurse liaison helps him. Sometimes nurses will talk to her about troubles they’re not comfortable broaching with a supervisor, he said.

Second World Congress of Imans and Rabbis for Peace

From The Christian Science Monitor

More than 150 influential Jewish and Muslim religious leaders will meet March 19-22 in Seville, Spain, for the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace.

The dialogue aims to build trust among the leaders as a basis for using their influence in conflict resolution and in developing joint projects. They also aim to challenge extremists who are misusing religion.

This month the imams and rabbis will discuss current tensions and issues and consider possible projects in the field of peace education.

At the first gathering a year ago, the congress set up the International Interreligious Monitoring Center to keep an eye on and respond to antireligious acts, and develop guidelines for countering prejudice and racism. The congress is run under the auspices of Hommes de Parole, a Paris-based foundation dedicated to conflict resolution and humanitarian efforts.

More information can be found at: http://www.religionnews.com/press02/PR022406.html

East Oakland Youth Find Opportunity to Prevent Violence and Support Community

Youth UpRising grew out of the needs articulated by Oakland youth in 1997 after racial tension at Castlemont High School erupted into violence. This first group of young people identified poor educational resources, too few employment opportunities, the absence of positive things to do, and lack of community and personal safety as the root causes of the problems facing youth.

The Youth Uprising Center has engaged each of these young people in personal transformation and youth leadership. The objective is to offer young people ages 13 through 24 positive programs and services while they grow up in some of Oakland's toughest neighborhoods. By providing attractive opportunities, the center seeks to deter crime and violence and to create community change.

The center uses art and culture to teach stress reduction and violence prevention to young people. Music-video shoots and poetry events at the center are part of the outreach. Youth Uprising is here not just to entertain the young people and keep them healthy. It's about changing the entire community.

Anti-Hate Program becomes Active Third Side in Montana Community

Adapted from PBS POV website

The Working Group has been helping local communities deal with intolerance and violence by holding film screenings and community discussions. When film maker Patrice O'Neill and crew got to Kalispell Montana, however, they realized they had landed in the midst of a conflict too complex to be comprehended, much less soothed, by a few community meetings.

Green swastikas were burned to protest environmental laws. A radio talk show host regularly called for the "eradication" of "green slime" while broadcasting the addresses of local environmental activists. Lug nuts were loosened on a car belonging to an anti-hate campaigner's daughter. While loggers and mill workers were facing lost jobs and rising living costs, right-wing extremists plied them with racist and anti-government rhetoric. Most ominously — in news that flashed across the nation and even around the world — a shadowy terror group called Project 7 was discovered with a cache of arms and a hit list of local government officials, police officers and their families.

It was the unmistakably rising tension in the town that led ex-police officer Brenda Kitterman to invite The Working Group to bring its grassroots anti-hate program, Not in Our Town, to Flathead Valley.

The Working Group ended up staying two years, earning the trust — or at least the willingness to speak candidly on camera — of antagonists on all sides of the Flathead Valley land wars, while documenting the valley's increasingly tense web of conflict, intimidation and public invective. From the outset, the filmmakers show they are not "strike a match" documentary makers. Far from heating up the action for dramatic effect, the filmmakers aim for the drama of a community seeking to restore its sense of kinship in the face of mounting stresses from within and without. In "The Fire Next Time," they appear to have crafted the rare documentary that widens communication — with signal exceptions — between declared enemies.  The documentary seeks to find out how the contentiousness in the Flathead Valley could take such a bitter and destructive turn — and once taken, how a community can marshal the will to pull itself back.

Dictionary Supports Columbian Journalists Reporting Conflict

Colombian journalists had stopped calling things by their real names for fear of threats, abductions or even death. For this reason, the the Medios Para la Paz publishes a dictionary covering terms and topics related to resolving peace and conflict as a tool to defend the accuracy and precision of the information in the face of pressure.

“Have we as journalists become one more actor in the armed conflict that has stricken our country for more than half a century?” and “Can we, with words, with our reports about the war, contribute to the establishment of favorable conditions for peace?   These were two questions that back in 1997 gathered a handful of senior reporters in Columbia.  It was of absolute necessity that they did something witnessing the rapid and increased degradation of both, war and journalism.

Eduardo Márquez, co-founder and trainer for Medios para la Paz desribes the focus on the development of the dictionary.

“But we did not settle with being simply death notaries in a country where intolerance and the negative to allow a different point of view, have consolidated as the most common and well known means for “solving” conflicts. Neither do we find convenient for our fragile democracy, the recent professional routines of many important media organizations with a tendency to convert the reporter into some kind of worker incited by disproportionate commercial interest.

And so, in a town near Bogotá, with the guidance of Javier Darío Restrepo and Gloria Moreno, when we were about thirty representing two generations of reporters, we got together to analyze a series of articles about war published in national newspapers.

During two days, we untangled the traps within the language connotations, the unbalanced consultation of sources, the distortions introduced by editors in sensationalistic headlines or in the lead, and the mistakes made due to the pressure of deadlines… mistakes committed when time doesn’t allow reflection and these errors feed upon accumulated knowledge and our scale of ideological, political, or religious values, or perspectives on social classes, race or sex.

Most of the articles had been written by irreproachable journalists filled with good intentions and they were in favor of a negotiated solution to our tragic warfare. This concerned us even more, because it indicated there were more professional practices interiorized in newsdesks and were considered to be correct.

Meanwhile, we touched up the new tool aimed at distinguishing the language journalists use from the language of their sources: The Dictionary of Terms of Conflict and Peace, To Disarm the Word. More than 500 terms defined accordingly to the International Human Right, the National Constitution and other codes.

It’s inevitable to remember a comment made by a journalist from Magangué – region with paramilitary influence, after attending a workshop held in Cartagena and with the dictionary in his hand he said: “I didn’t know that the language I used spontaneously could identify me with one group and make me become a target to another group.” Or another journalist of a radio station in south of Tolima, zone of historic presence of FARC, confessed: “Before I publish any article related to issues on law and order or judicial news, I always review with the dictionary of Medios para la Paz. That way, in addition to doing what’s right, I avoid having trouble with guerrilla or with the military.””